Dear Friends and Neighbors:

I hope you enjoyed a rejuvenating summer and are looking forward to celebrating the holidays ahead this fall. Like many of you, Vanessa and I have watched our children enter another school year and we are concerned as ever about making our community and the world they inherit better than the one passed on to us.

Each of us must ask ourselves how we can best serve our communities and country, so I wanted you to be the first to know that today I officially entered the race for Congress for the 4th District in Massachusetts.

Thank you so much to many of you who encouraged me and Vanessa, and generously offered your support. We know running for office takes total commitment and are humbled and grateful for your friendship and belief. We could not take on this journey without you.

This is the worst and best of times for our country.

It is the worst of times, because Donald Trump is an existential threat to our democracy and the promise set forth in the Preamble to our Constitution: to form a more perfect union.

But, more importantly, it is the best of times because of the response of millions of people who are standing up for each other, our country, and the very best of America.

On the second day of Trump’s presidency, women led millions of marchers worldwide, to take a stand for respect, dignity and our fundamental values. And the inspiring movement against corruption and oppression began. Young people, through March for Our Lives, insisted we must end the scourge of gun violence and for the first time in decades the NRA is on the defensive. Just last Friday, millions of people across the globe, led by young activists, took to the streets to demand that we confront the calamity of the climate crisis.

There are now, more people of all ages, engaging in grassroots efforts, locally and nationally, than we have seen in decades. This is so encouraging and key to reclaiming our democracy.

Our democratic institutions are in peril, special interests have taken over, and the system is failing. I want to work with you to push open the doors of Congress, bring the people in, and force our democracy to work for all. I would be honored to represent our District in this effort.

My life’s work has been dedicated to building teams to empower people at the grassroots to find their voice and make a difference in our communities and country.

More than thirty years ago, I co-founded City Year with Michael Brown, from my law school dorm room, as a model for an urban peace corps. We were honored when President Clinton chose City Year as a model for his AmeriCorps program. Now more than 1.1 million people have served in AmeriCorps. We know national service works. It is time to inspire every young person from all backgrounds, to serve together and change our country.

People often ask how we made City Year happen and grew the program nationwide. It wasn’t about us, it was about all who joined together to promote civic activism and common purpose. Together we built City Year on service to others, strength in diversity, empathy, equal opportunity, justice, and love.

At the very first gathering of City Year corps members on Thompson’s Island, we told them City Year was based on two foundational ideals. First, the native American prayer, “Great spirit grant that I shall not criticize my brother or sister until I have walked a mile in his or her moccasins.” Second, Robert Kennedy’s speech in South Africa when he challenged each of us to try to send “ripples of hope.” At its essence, City Year is about building democracy through service and turning on people’s justice nerves, so they strive to create the beloved community that Dr. King spoke about.

My parents raised me with these same values. Mom’s father and grandparents came from Italy. Mom pursued her chosen career with a passion and became a nurse anesthetist and school nurse. She was a natural healer and expressed love fearlessly in all that she did.

Dad, who left a dictatorship for democracy when he emigrated from Iran, often spoke of how America made him feel more welcome than anywhere else in the world. He loved our country and our free democratic system and frequently told me to never take it for granted. He studied our history and believed that America’s greatest strength was our ideals governed by liberty.

My parents put their compassion into action and both left lasting positive impacts on so many, as those they encountered have heartwarmingly shared over the years. They showed me the difference one person can make, inspiring me to do my part.

One of the first orders of business in the Trump administration was to ban people like my Father’s side of our family from coming to our country. If my Dad were a young medical student trying to come to America today, the door to America would be closed. And it isn’t just my Dad’s story. It is the horror stories of children being separated from their parents and put in cages, people of color being disenfranchised at the polls, a push from the Justice Department to allow the termination of workers based on gender identity and the daily effort to pit one group against another. Like so many in Trump’s America, my Dad’s story wouldn’t even be possible. We must not let Trump’s America become Our America.

In Our America, we remember the golden rule.

In Our America we are committed to educating our children and keeping them safe.

In Our America, everyone will have a living wage, affordable healthcare and housing, and security in retirement.

In Our America we will preserve our environment and save our planet, the one home we all share.

In Our America we will restore government of the people, by the people and for the people.

As we rebuild Our America we should remember the words of St. Francis:

“All the darkness in the world, cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.”

As I travel our district, I look forward to hearing your ideas as to what we need to do to improve our communities and what Our America should be, and how together we can make it possible.

I hope you will join Vanessa and me in this cause. We would be so grateful to have your support.

Thank you,